This is a response to old trope strongholds that have worn out their welcome.

The text reads:

Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen Listen You Never Listen

I Never Say What I Mean I Never Say What I Mean I Never Say What I Mean

Listen YOU never Listen

YOU NEVER LISTEN IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT YOU YOU NEVER LISTEN IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT YOU

YOU NEVER LISTEN IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT YOU YOU NEVER LISTEN IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT YOU

YOU NEVER LISTEN IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT YOU YOU NEVER LISTEN IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT YOU

YOU NEVER LISTEN IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT YOU YOU NEVER LISTEN IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT YOU YOU NEVER LISTEN IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT YOU YOU NEVER LISTEN IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT YOU

The world has once again grown wearisome, dreadfully dull, insane, illogical in the worst way possible, dehumanizing, cutthroat, & lamentable. It’s tiresome and over.

So, I’ll envision an entirely new world: part Alice in Wonderland, part Hieronymus Bosch, part Dali, part Miro—

It will be phantasmagorical—fantastical, a visual masterpiece, colorful beyond the human visual spectrum, lush, opulent, ridiculous, illogical in the best way possible, no limitations to creativity, a paradiso, an egalitarian utopia, every step taken makes yet another symphonic note in its everlasting opus.

Some inhabitants include or rather a Mad Tea Party will ensue with the following residents (in no particular order and subject to change):

This new world teams with pandas, narwhals, elephants, foxes, hummingbirds, hawks, blue jays, crows, bees, whales of all variety really except killer whales (because they fucking suck and nothing that sucks is permitted), fox gloves, oak trees, orchids, really damn near everything in the Amazon because it’s majestic, all the majestic things.

It will never get over 75 degrees.

You can eat or drink whatever you want without ill side effects.

There will be no children in the procreative sense. However, at any given time residents may choose and have access to themselves at any age. It will be quite common to see a 5 year old Kit hanging with a 5 year old Dali, Einstein, Kahlo, etc or an 11 yr old Kit with an 11 yr old Wilde, Auden, Hoch, etc.

The residents are all QUEENS. And we can move forward and backwards, sideways, “upside down /inside out/ round and round--” through time, space, dimension and theoretical realms yet undiscovered.

There is no death only rebirth. And the only law governing us all is LOVE.

Reworking of a piece entitled 'Exit Through the Wound'

This original work started out as a piece in a current series related to my pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, but something about it really kept aggravating my core. Since it grew quite irksome, I decided the best way to release that sensation was to ugly it up by scribbling all of the other ugly things in the world or in my past that brought interior discord.

Phase II

Next comes the really gratifying part of painting all over it whatever calls out the most.

Phase III

Starting to get muddied and murky as prone to do.

Phase IV

Really began to feel some interior relief and movement. A shift in perception.

Phase V

As a consequence, this feeling compelled me to write the word 'holy' all over the canvas and over the wounds. In part as an ask for healing and understanding how these wounds can be made (as in be seen as holy in a manner that promotes forgiveness) and in part as an homage to Patti Smith who paid homage to Ginsberg.

Phase VI

Phase VII

After a few days of reworking the frustration mounted as this piece wasn't manifesting according to my vision or when it acted like it might, I invetiably did something to muck it up AGAIN. So I took a scrapper to the whole thing like a colossal picking at scabs and let it bleed overnight.

Phase VIII

The next morning, I approached it from a different angle. One of determination. impatience and demand. Heal damnit.

Phase IX

Eventually something started to take shape, but it felt forced and too close to the original image. Humans love to do this sometimes as we grow: start to bloom while continuing to cling to old patterns of growth and ways of being. There is comfort in our discomfort, but this wasn't going to work. Something drastic needed to happen.

Phase X

So, it went dark and I cried out to the heavens.

Phase XII

Had to learn to sit with the discomfort. The discomfort of the piece in an uglier phase than when initially started, uglier than the phase where there was the encouragement of something new and all of the ugliness in general of my frustration with this piece, the world at large and especially women's place in it. So, I let myself fume for a bit and eventually cooled.

Phase XII

Stayed up until well past midnight sitting with it until forced to explore deeper and try something different. In my exhaustion, I whipped out the molding paste and smeared its goopy loveliness all over the canvas and went to bed.

Phase XIV

The light looked very different in the morning.

Queens of Heaven

In order to create sometimes you must destroy. In order to heal you must learn to live with the scars.

Hi folks. Here's a behind the scenes look at one of my digital-photomontage mini "fugues." Each sequential photo (seen below) represents another phase of the photo editing/manipulating process before reaching a final result. Most of the time one of these sessions can last anywhere on average from 1-4 hours (sometimes longer) depending on the creative flow. In many ways this process is related to analog painting: shifting perspective, applying new layers of color, adding and subtracting elements, using various tools, etc. All of the images you'll find under the digital photomontage tab on this site are created in this manner. It's also why the original image is included in the series. A fun fact about this process: many times these sessions can produce up to 100s of images. Some of which are obviously slough offs and some of which veer on their own path of becoming entirely new works of art themselves. Therein lies the wonder of creative play. Maybe a future post will feature the slough-offs. Until then happy arting.